SOUTH HADLEY - Four Web sites targeting defendants in the Phoebe Prince bullying case at South Hadley High School were shut down Thursday after law enforcement agencies contacted the California-based company hosting them.

The sites were brimming with slurs, threats, and lewd anatomical comments about the four teenage girls charged in the aftermath of the suicide of Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old transfer student from Ireland who hung herself on Jan. 14 after months of abuse, according to the district attorney.

Four defendants - Kayla Narey, 17; Ashley Longe, 16; Flannery Mullins, 16, and Sharon Chanon Velazquez, 16, all of South Hadley - have been targeted on the bully-bashing sites, with each carrying their names, photos and instructions on how to greet them.

“If you see this (person) on the streets, throw things at her, spit on her, call her names, give her back what she has been dealing to others,” said the sites, which went online in late March.

The two male defendants, Sean Mulveyhill 17, of South Hadley, and Austin Renaud, 18, of Springfield, were not singled out on the Web sites. Both have pleaded innocent to statutory rape charges, and Mulveyhill has also denied counts of criminal harassment and civil rights violations.

The female defendants are charged with civil rights violations, criminal harassment and other charges.

A search for information about the registrant of the domain names, conducted by The Republican on Wednesday, yielded an address and phone number in Irvine, Calif., belonging to Megabyte Computers, a Web design and IT services firm.

The domain names were created on March 30 - the day after Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth D. Scheibel announced the indictments related to Prince’s suicide.

The firm’s owner, Steven J. Stinnett, confirmed that his company created the code for the sites, but he declined to name his client.

The four sites were taken down Thursday after the company was contacted by law enforcement authorities, Stinnett said.

In her announcing the charges against the six teens on March 29, Scheibel said that Prince’s family has asked that people refrain from vigilantism in the matter. “Now is not the time for retributions or reprisals,” Scheibel said.

But abusive Internet behavior has been a part of the story since the first days after news of Prince’s death emerged. A Facebook page established in Prince’s memory was taken down after it was defaced in a coordinated attack by anonymous Internet “trolls” on Jan. 15.

In early February, South Hadley resident Laurie A. Narey said she was terrified of cyber-bullies who had posted disturbing comments about her online in the mistaken belief that she is the mother of Kayla Narey.

Laurie Narey’s name, address, old telephone number and even a map to her home were disseminated on a number of Web sites, accompanied by posts such as, “Does anybody know about amputation, how to do it?”

South Hadley Police Chief David J. LaBrie said he has subpoenaed records from Facebook.com as part of his investigation into the threats against Narey and several other South Hadley residents.

Neither Scheibel nor LaBrie could be reached for comment on the sites targeting the four defendants.

Leora Harpaz, a professor at Western New England College School of Law, said legal doctrine is still evolving on issues of school bullying and so-called cyber bullying.

Web sites or postings calling for violence against specific individuals could be viewed as illegal, depending on how the statements are phrased, Harpaz said.

But law enforcement agencies are more likely to target people who commit illegal acts than persons advocating them, she said.